Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons.
My Lord: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your lordship’s note of the 6th instant, which prefers complaints, presented by her Majesty’s consul at New York, in behalf of certain persons engaged in trade between that port and Newfoundland. The subject of the complaint is, that the collector of customs at New York has exacted new and onerous bonds from such merchants as security; that flour and provisions exported by them to Newfoundland shall not ultimately be for the use of the insurgent enemies of the United States. The subject is entirely new to me, and therefore I cannot undertake to decide upon these complaints without first calling upon the treasury for information as to the proceedings complained of, and for the directions under which the collector at New York has acted. This call will be promptly made.
[Page 472]In the mean time I hope that it may be attributed to an earnest desire, not to increase, but to remove embarrassments, if I call to your lordship’s recollection some matters that probably will require to be considered in determining the reasonableness of these complaints. A formidable piratical enterprise to make war upon the United States from the British provinces lying on the shores of the lakes and the St. Lawrence was detected by her Majesty’s authorities in these provinces, and was prevented from execution solely by reason of the information these authorities, acting in a most humane manner, gave through your lordship to the government of the United States. More recently a band of pirates, who have taken shelter in her Majesty’s Atlantic provinces, when arrived from those provinces at New York, went on board a packet disguised as inoffensive persons, and when the steamer had reached the high seas, rose in the night time, assassinated the engineer, seized, maimed, and bound the captain, carried the vessel into waters of New Brunswick, and received supplies of coal from accomplices awaiting her arrival there, and then conveyed the steamer into the British waters of Nova Scotia. The steamer being taken with some of the pirates on board by a United States ship-of-war in these waters, and placed with those pirates in the hands of the provincial authorities, these authorities, exercising an unquestioned right, declined to re-deliver, except upon formal requisition, either the vessel or the pirates to the agents of the United States; and when these authorities, in understood good faith, issued warrants for the seizure and detention of the pirates, they were saved or delivered from arrest by a mob composed of British subjects, residents of Nova Scotia.
More lately still it has been discovered and made known to her Majesty’s government, that, in violation of military regulations, one thousand rifles were shipped from New York to Halifax, which proceeding could have had no other object but either to arm British subjects for a border war against the United States, or to ship these arms from Halifax through the blockade to the use of the insurgent enemies of the United States.
More recently it has been discovered and promptly made known to her Majesty’s government, that through a correspondence carried on between an agent located in New York and an agent at Halifax, pirates at that latter place were preparing, under the disguise of passengers, to seize and take two other American steamers, doubtless through a commission of the same crimes of piracy and assassination which were practiced with so much immunity by their accomplices in the case of the Chesapeake.
Still later, persons who alleged themselves to be British, and who, one if not more, came offering themselves as neutral passengers on board American steamers at New York for passage to southern ports, were found to be carrying forbidden and treasonable mails to the insurgents. Simultaneously it was observed that arms and supplies for the insurgents are constantly being fraudulently ship ped at New York, by persons claiming British protection under the British flag, and even under the flag of the United States, for the use of the insurgents, and such persons, as well as the carriers of the treasonable mails, are now in custody.
I have made known to her Majesty’s government, in a courteous manner, and as I hope with the most profound respect, and the most entire confidence in its friendship towards the United States, the President’s opinion that these proceedings all have their legitimate origin in that policy of her Majesty’s government which recognizes the insurgents as a naval power, when in the opinion of this government they have never had nor could have any claim to that title; and that their proceedings working together with illicit and clandestine transactions carried on in the British waters, in violation of British laws, notwithstanding courteous remonstrances from this government, tend to involve her Majesty’s provinces and the United States in a border war, which would be calamitous to both countries. Upon these grounds her Majesty’s government have been solicited [Page 473] to consider if it is not possible for them to do something to arrest the practices, which in the manner I have mentioned have been brought to their notice.
I beg leave now to assure your lordship that the United States desire peace and increased trade with her Majesty’s American colonies, as well as with Great Britain, and this government will spare no means to secure this end; but that it ought not to excite surprise if at the same time this government practices the vigilance necessary to prevent information, materials, ships, and arms from being conveyed, whether by British or American citizens, into and through the provinces to sustain and prolong an inexcusable domestic insurrection.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, my lord, your obedient servant,
Right Hon. Lord Lyons.